Interesting that the local council had to place ads around to warn people about loan sharks. It must be quite a serious problem, serious enough for the ads to be put up.

However, sometimes people just don’t have any other avenues. (eg lack of knowledge or skill to get a loan) so a loan shark is their only choice from their perspective.

These guys are just sharks.

Rates like 10% per month. Our tabloids carry gory tales about people’s houses being sprayed with red paint, debt collectors threatening seriously dire consequences etc. etc.

The really sad thing is that so many of these guys lend to completely hopeless borrowers like gamblers and the like.

And to top it all, they go after elderly parents if their sons or daughters borrow and then bolt off.

PS: Hope you made it in time for your TM course…hehe

What exactly defines the difference between a loan shark, and a person to person loan at high interest due to high risk?

Say I have a friend that needs 2 grand ‘no questions asked’ . . . I want to charge him 60% APR cause he’s no good with money and it’s more of a gamble than an investment. Am I now a loan shark?

I wonder if it’s the same in the States…or perhaps state by state (because in that way we’re more like the EU, lots of things differ on the local level).

@Traciatim:
In the UK if you are lending money, and you aren’t licensed by the Office of Fair Trading then you are have no legal recourse to the money. In that case, it’s the point at which you start threatening the borrower that you become a loan shark as it’s that aspect which the most illegal. I suspect that it’s similar in most places.

I love that image! I had a similar thought recently when I learned about a woman who took out a loan for a used car - I don’t know what the agreed-upon price was, but the financing terms were almost $700 per month for 60 months at 13.9% interest! The dealership apparently didn’t blink at the terms, even though the woman didn’t have much income. I couldn’t help but think that I am so out of touch with how some (make that many) people live.

@Traciatim: Loan sharks are not licensed to loan money. Not being licensed alone doesn’t make you a loan shark. It’s when you start threatening people with violence that you become one I believe. Because you can still do a personal loan to a friend or relative, have it notarized and include an interest rate and payment plan.

Loan Sharking can be a federal offense in the US, if they want to prove it funds other criminal activity.

Loan Dolphining on the other hand…

Loan dolphining…good!

In the U.S. unlicensed loan sharks can go to jail. Licensed loan sharks get rich on payday loan stands, and loan sharks with enough money to hire lobbyists get really rich issuing credit cards.

Usury laws are effectively extinct in this country, and so credit-card interest makes a pikerly little street loan shark’s charges look like chump change. And the legalized usurers, while they can’t threaten to beat you up, certainly can subject you to extortion: it’s called “ruining your credit” and “siccing a collection agency on you.”

Do those Cash Advance and Check Cashing places qualify as loan sharks? I think so.

i have a family member who borrowed money from a real loan shark they she met from some co-workers at the casino she works at in las vegas. the casino nows the guy is a loan shark and many employees drum up business for him.she cant pay it back and the interest is 10 percent every 7 days, and there has been threats and this person even got her fired from her job. is loan sharking illegal in nevada and what options does she have to protect herself. and i was reading the gaming law in nevada and the fact that the casino knows he is a loan shark and helps him get business and lets him gamble with illegal blood money at there tables seems to me should not be allowed. by definition of there own law. this is one of the largest gaming operations on the strip who do you turn to.

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